http://www.harpersbazaar.com/ukPHOTOGRAPHS: SIM CANETTY-CLARKE/SIM PHOTOGRAPHY, BEN ADDY, JUSTINE PICARDIE
November 2019 | HARPER’S BAZAAR | 247ESCAPE
‘A
away, and Prince Charles officially opened the
Fife Arms in January this year, accompanied by
his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.
The hotel is already drawing admiring visitors
from all around the world, but it remains at the
heart of the local community; its bar, the Flying
Stag, hosts lively musical evenings with traditional fiddlers, and its
hearty menu and selection of over 180 whiskies are as popular with
Braemar villagers as hikers and tourists. There is also the smarter,
but still warmly convivial Clunie Dining Room, which takes its name
from the fast-flowing river that runs past the hotel. This uses the
freshest locally sourced ingredients to deliver irresistible dishes at
lunch and dinner, and serves as good a Scottish cooked breakfast as we
u s e d t o e n j o y a t T i l l y p r o n i e. N e e d l e s s t o s a y, t h e a r t h e r e i s a s e x c e p -
tional as elsewhere in the hotel: the walls have been painted in one
continuous geometrical mural by the abstract Argentinian artist
Guillermo Kuitca; and if that were not enough, a vast Brueghel hangs
on one side of the room, with a Gerhard Richter eagle on the other.
While the creative genius of Iwan and Manuela Wirth is to
be seen in every aspect of the hotel, its homely and welcoming
atmosphere is also due to the charming and vastly experienced
general manager Federica Bertolini, who had been at the Olga
Polizzi-owned Hotel Tresanton in Cornwall for 11 years, before
moving to Scotland. The result is an inimitable combination of
superb attention to detail and an authentic sense of history; truly,
the art of hospitality at its finest.
Justine Picardie will be in conversation with the fashion designer
Christopher Kane and the V&A curator Oriole Cullen at the Fife Arms on
9 November, to discuss the links between Paris couture and Scottish culture.
For more details on the Fife Arms’ fashion weekend, and to book tickets,
visit http://www.thefifearms.com/fashion-weekend.home from home’ is an overused phrase in
the travel industry, but when it comes to the
Fife Arms, for me it proved to be entirely true. Two
years ago, my husband Philip sold his home in the
Highlands – a glorious Aberdeenshire estate
named Tillypronie – and soon afterwards, a portion of his substan-
tial Scottish art collection was auctioned at Christie’s. Unbeknown
to us at the time, among the successful bidders were the famed
international art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth (the co-owners
of Hauser & Wirth), who happened to be refurbishing the Fife
Arms, a landmark Victorian hotel in Braemar, close to their own
Scottish retreat of Invercauld.
It was not until I visited the hotel with my husband this summer
that I realised the extent to which Tillypronie’s treasures had found
such a loving new home in the Fife Arms. Philip had inherited from
h i s f a t h e r a n u n r i v a l l e d c o l l e c t i o n o f w i l d l i f e a n d s p o r t i n g a r t , w h i c h
over the next 30 years he proceeded to expand and diversify. It was
a joy to see so many old friends from Tillypronie – including Queen
Victoria’s drawing of a stag’s head, which has pride of place above
the visitors’ book in the entrance hall – looking unexpectedly at ease
alongside masterpieces by Picasso and Lucian Freud, a bronze
spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois and a dazzling ceiling in the
drawing-room painted by the Chinese artist
Zhang Enli. But such is the charm of this rem-
arkable hotel, combining tartan, tweeds and
taxidermy, with a dash of surrealism and playful
wit, that its astonishing eclecticism is imme-
diately and utterly beguiling.
All of which is entirely appropriate to the his-
tory of the place. For none other than the
Surrealists’ favourite designer, Elsa Schiaparelli- honoured with a cocktail bar named after
her at the Fife Arms – used to visit Braemar as
the guest of a former editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
Frances Farquharson, who joined the magazine
in the 1930s, left her job when she married the laird who owned
Invercauld and Braemar castles. Soon after their marriage in 1949,
Frances introduced shocking pink to the interiors – the better to make
her friend Elsa feel welcome when she came to stay. It was also
thanks to these invitations to the area that Schiaparelli began to
incorporate Scottish textiles into her Paris collections. Meanwhile,
the formidable Mrs Farquharson commissioned local tartans for her
own flamboyant outfits; hence my confidence that she would have
heartily approved of the brio that has been brought to the Fife Arms.
The imaginative metamorphosis of the hotel was overseen by
the interior designer Russell Sage, who ensured that each of the
46 bedrooms is completely unique. There are rooms dedicated
to Robert Louis Stevenson (who wrote much of Treasure Island
in Braemar), John Brown (Queen Victoria’s beloved ghillie) and
Sir Walter Scott, among other Scottish notables. We luxuriated
in the splendid Duke of Fife suite, with an antique four-poster
bed, a huge free-standing copper bath and a view over one of the
most magnificent landscapes in Scotland.
For the hotel is surrounded by majestic hills and moorland, and
close to an enchantingly beautiful stretch of the River Dee. During
our stay, I walked for hours every day: climbing peaks and crags to
admire the Cairngorms that stretch as far as the eye can see;
exploring the ancient woodland of the Morrone Birkwood; and
following the paths favoured by Queen Victoria, who loved this
area, as do the Royal Family today. Balmoral is just a few miles
The Fife Arms.
Left: the River Dee